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Thursday, September 29, 2011

I started watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution last year because, let’s face it, Jamie is cute, and food is delicious. After seeing him make “chicken nuggets” from leftover chicken pieces, including pureed bones and blood, and having kids enthusiastically raise their hands to sample one, I knew something was wrong with America. These kids couldn’t even identify a raw potato!

Ever since that fateful day, I’ve taken an interest in food education, and food in the school systems. So when the chance to review Lunch Wars by Amy Kalafa for the Blogher Book Club came along, I thought it would be a good read. I love books on food and the science of food. However, not having kids or being involved in any sort of school system, I completely underestimated this book.

What I thought would be the telling of Kalafa’s struggles with her child’s school and the sub sequential movie she made, Two Angry Moms, turned out to be a step-by-step guide to starting your own food revolution. Kalafa goes through each hurdle - from starting a blog to gain support, to creating a wellness committee at your school, to taking on the USDA - and does so in minute detail. She provides suggestions for everything from getting kids to try a new veggie to how to build a community garden. Kalafa is thorough with a capital T.

Because of this thoroughness, and because I am not the intended audience for this book, I was totally bored. I skimmed through the second half, stopping fully only to read the chapter on international lunches (lunch time in France is awesome). So it wasn’t for me - but if you’re the parent of kids in school, I highly recommend it.

This is a paid review for Blogher.com, but the opinions expressed are my own - see the part where I say "I was totally bored."